The Mavs made some progress this week in their quest for the 2019 Playoffs. Although they dropped to 4 games back in the division due to Memphis’ big 4-0 week (including a win over the Mavs), they made up 1/2 a game in the Western Conference Standings, now just 2 games back of the 8 seed.

The biggest improvement they made was not in the standings but in the way they competed on the court. They are starting to look like a team on the defensive end, giving up only 91 ppg this week against good teams in the Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, and Memphis Grizzlies.

The Mavs have a light week with just 2 games, both at home: Wednesday against Brooklyn and Saturday against Boston. The West, and the Division, looked to be crammed this year so it is important to keep this momentum rolling and show progress each week.

Western Conference Heat Map:

A new feature this week that I will be including going forward. The following heat map shows which teams excel in which statistical categories and where teams are under performing. The darker the green the more they outperform (i.e. Warriors at 116 ppg) and the darker the red the worse they are (i.e. the Suns in almost every category).